About Us

We are a small but growing network of young artistic people with lived experience of mental ill health. This may be mental health problems we have experienced ourselves, or perhaps the experience of someone we know well. We are age 14 -25, plus teaching artists. We aim to meet regularly to create, design and tell our way through the world and let people know what it is truly like to be young in 2017. We are ready to tell things as they are!Our events and workshops are focused on art in its many, many, forms. This may be:

Storytelling

Poetry

Music

Dancing

Visual Arts

Drama

Photography

Sculpture

​Creative Writing

And much, much more!

Our Team

Cath HeinemeyerI still find it strange to say that I tell stories for a living - but that is in fact the truth. I also listen to stories, learn from them, collaborate on them, research through them, translate them into different times and places, turn them into poetry, music and drama, and teach others how to find and shape them. I am most interested in the gaps in the story - what it doesn't tell.​

Matthew Reason​I'm Professor of Theatre at York St John University, which means I get paid to talk, think, watch, make and write about theatre - which isn't bad as jobs go. I'm interested in why we make theatre and why we go to theatres or galleries to experience art. I believe that we often use art, theatre and stories to help us navigate and understand the world around us, and that by doing so we can hang onto the threads and fringes of meanings that we cannot grasp in any other way.

Matt HarperI am a Theatre Practitioner and the Converge link for this project. I love nothing more than having a big chat over an even bigger cup of coffee, but working in theatre. I love the more creative, dynamic and expressive forms of communication that the arts offer. So whether it is through dance, script writing, storytelling or Mongolian throat singing, I am excited to start a conversation to hear Things As They Are.

​Imogen GodwinI am a research assistant at Things As They Are. This sounds very grown up, but actually I just believe passionately that the arts are an awesome way for young people to cope with all the things that modern life throws at them. I am twenty years old and write a blog called the Upside Down Chronicles about my journey with mental illness and disability. I found myself in the artistic world when I fell down a very dark rabbit hole. I write blogs, perform my poetry, draw, tell stories, make sounds and I created the graphics on this site! I am generally inclined towards anything artistic. My creative process involves good wifi, music and a lot of tea!